Bangkok to Beijing train trial run starts
published : 13 Jun 2024 at 13:29
writer: Gary Boyle
ORIGINAL SOURCE/WRITER: South China Morning Post
Train travel between Bangkok and Beijing is inching closer as Thailand prepares to expand its rail network.
Thailand will run a trial service between Bangkok and Laos' capital of Vientiane between July 13 and 14, according to the State Railway of Thailand (SRT). When up and running, the new link will improve transport between the two countries and China.
The launch of the Thailand-Laos connection will mean it is possible to travel by train from Bangkok to Beijing via stops in Vientiane and the southern Chinese city of Kunming, where there is a separate semi-high-speed service to the Chinese capital.
The roughly 3,218-kilometre journey will take almost a full day. That compares with nearly five hours for a non-stop flight.
There is already a high-speed train operating between China and Laos that offers a route for Thai goods to be transported via rail to Kunming, according to a Nikkei report. That has helped reduce delivery times to China to 15 hours from the two days it takes for trucks to carry freight along the mountainous route, it said.
Vocabulary
- freight: goods, but not passengers, that are carried from one place to another, by ship, aircraft, train or truck, or the system of transporting these goods - สินค้าที่ขนส่ง
- goods: things that are produced to be sold; possessions that can be moved - สินค้า, สิ่งของ
- inch: to move or make something move slowly and carefully in a particular direction - เคลื่อนไปทีละน้อย, เคลื่อนไปอย่างช้าๆ
- launch: starting something - การเริ่มต้น
- mountainous: having a lot of mountains -
- roughly: approximately but not exactly - โดยประมาณ, อย่างคร่าวๆ
- separate: different; not connected - ซึ่งไม่ต่อเนื่อง, ซึ่งไม่เชื่อมกัน
- trial: a test, usually over a limited period of time, to discover how effective or suitable something or someone is - การทดลอง, การทดสอบ
- trial run (noun): a test - การทดลอง, การทดสอบ
